News Sustainability Observatory

This is a pioneering study, as there had been no other report that had assessed the impact of the consultancy sector in Catalonia before. It points out that the sector has 4,586 companies and it is calculated that the productivity in the territory is 72,056 per worker per year.

The turbulence of recent times has led to a real change in logistics paradigms: more proximity, more stock and more integration. Oriol Montanyà, Director of the Postgraduate in Total Supply Chain Management, analyses the movements in the value chain over the last two years. 

While it is clear that companies need to undergo a big transformation to become more circular, the circular economy model cannot succeed without the involvement of consumers too. Consumers can participate in the process by engaging in sustainable behaviors such as household recycling or the reduction of energy consumption. However, engaging in such sustainable behaviors is not necessarily easy for consumers. In this article, we will explore two barriers to sustainable behavior as well as some solutions to overcome such barriers. 

Ana Freire, Director of the Academic Area of Operations, Technology and Science at UPF-BSM; Nia Plamenova, lecturer on the Master in Human Resources Management at UPF-BSM; Jorge Salas, Chief Marketplace Officer at Jobandtalent, and Íñigo Vallejo, PR & Content Manager at Milanuncios, discuss the role of technology in the new labour era at the panel "Well-being at the click of a button: A new era for companies and workers", moderated by El País journalist Ana Pantaleoni.

Ana Palencia, Communication Director of Unilever; Marc Ros, CEO of After and Marcos Eguiguren, Director of the International Chair of Sustainable Finance, discuss the role of sustainability in the business sector at the round table "Greenwashing: always a bad idea?", moderated by Cadena SER journalist Carla Turró.

It is a trilingual publication with twelve articles written by experts in different disciplines who approach sustainability from different perspectives

Green consumers translate their commitment to planetary well-being into their purchasing habits and tend to be wellinformed consumers

Women continue to be under-represented in management bodies, even in Spain's benchmark stock market index. Eighty per cent of listed companies do not comply with gender equality requirements and six of the 35 companies do not achieve even 20 per cent female presence on boards of directors. Erola Palau Pinyana, researcher in the Operations, Technology and Science Department, analyses the data and notes the poor performance since March 2021.

Up to 428 companies have left Lleida in the last six years, a figure that accounts for 3.2% of the total companies in the territory, according to the Survey on the relocation of companies from the Lleida counties, commissioned at the University of Lleida (UdL) and the UPF Barcelona School of Management (UPF-BSM), with the Board of Economic Promotion.

While supply chains are still recovering from the so-called container crisis, another major event is looming that will have a major impact: the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In an article published in Expansión, the Director of the Postgraduate in Total Supply Chain Management, Oriol Montanyà, analyses the impact that the war will have on sectors such as food, energy and technology. 

Sport must be exemplary in its management and commit to practices based on sport ecology to mitigate some of the environmental consequences arising from its activity. The director of the Master in Sports Management, Xavier Moya, presents successful cases in which the combination of sustainability and sport has generated changes and contributed to the transformation of the world. 

The cloud is made up of computers that store and process data of all kinds, dissipating heat in a single space. This huge amount of work can raise the temperature of the room considerably and, therefore, data centers need infrastructures to maintain the temperature and ensure the proper functioning of the machines. How can we reduce the technological carbon footprint? Ana Freire, Director of the Academic Area of Technology, points to Artificial Intelligence. 

Talking about sustainability in social media does not reverse negative feelings about a brand, but it increases trust in it and improves its image. This is proven by several recent studies and explained by Cristina Aced, professor in the Department of Business Strategy and Management and an expert in digital communication. 

The Sustainability Observatory, led by Oriol Montanyà, receives the Barcelona Sustainable Tourism Award in the economic field for having built an educational bridge between scientific knowledge and social needs.

With the new Spanish Climate Change Law, companies will have to calculate their carbon footprint, as well as draw up and publishing greenhouse gas reduction plans. What impact will this have on the future of this businesses? Fàtima Vidal, faculty in the Business & Management Strategy Department, analyzes the consequences.